At inaugural meeting, new CCC committee eyes extensions of license and badge durations, plus relaxed restrictions on loyalty programs and discounts
As we reported in December, the Massachusetts Cannabis Control Commission seems more motivated than ever before to speed things up. Which is not easy to do in an underfunded bureaucracy charged with regulating a growing new industry.
Commissioner Kimberly Roy said at the time, “As we move forward and we realize that some of the regulations that were in place made sense at the time, maybe no longer make sense or their utility has expired and maybe we can sunset some of these things.”
The obvious example cited was the notorious so-called two-driver rule, a mandate that effectively doubled primary labor costs. That long-looming hangnail, often referred to by CCC members as “low-hanging fruit,” was finally remedied last year, but countless other tedious unnecessary rules persist.
To address those issues, the CCC established an ambitious Red Tape Removal Committee. Prescribed to include six CCC staff members, including the chief of staff and chief technology and information officer, the body also has members from outside of the agency. The list of stakeholders specifically identified include advocates such as Kevin Gilnack from Equitable Opportunities Now, David O’Brien from the Massachusetts Cannabis Business Association, and Ryan Dominguez, executive director of the Massachusetts Cannabis Coalition. Other participants span cultivators to delivery operators.
First meeting of the working group
On Jan. 21, 35 members of the Red Tape Removal Working Group met at CCC headquarters in Worcester. Sponsored by Chair Shannon O’Brien and Commissioner Roy, it was attended by six commission staffers, the “project team,” and 27 individuals comprising the “consulting team.” The latter, according to the CCC, “is comprised of Independent Testing Laboratories, Retailers, Product
Manufacturers, Marijuana Treatment Centers, Indoor and Outdoor Cultivators, Delivery
Operators, Advocacy Organizations.”
Per CCC public meeting documents, “Working Group Members discussed the rationale behind previously submitted recommendations.” The resulting “top five from the meeting per consensus” were:
- Agent badging. Licensees have long requested reforms to a system that requires employees of businesses with multiple licenses to need several costly agent registrations. Members are specifically recommending that the cadence of badging at least be slowed from annually to every three years.
- Responsible Vendor Training. They’re also recommending that employees should only be required to update their RVT certification every three years instead of every year.
- License renewals. Members of the working group are pushing for license renewals to go from annual to biannual.
- Retail ID checks. At long last, they’re asking that consumers don’t have to show their license twice in a dispensary, sometimes within a matter of seconds at different counters.
- Discounts and loyalty programs. Put simply, members want to be able to offer some of the same kinds of deals as every other business in the Bay State, instead of licensees having to look over their shoulder for a CCC inspector every time they lower prices.
Origins of the RTRC
The formation of a Red Tape Removal Committee was originally discussed at the commission’s meeting on Oct. 15. Moving forward, the plan is for members to review input and generate formal recommendations by June 30, 2026.
“We would like to move more quickly on this, but that gives us a hard stop that we need to get this done,” Chair O’Brien said. In a more mature market than ever imagined with over 500 dispensaries statewide, she and others spoke bluntly about the challenges of catching up with the current industry.
“The concept came to me, not my own, but just after having done so many rounds meeting with stakeholders.” Commissioner Roy spoke about the formation of the streamlining posse at the October meeting: “This is a highly regulated, highly taxed, very challenging environment. … We’re looking at regulations now, and it’s time to evaluate the utility on some of these to see if there is still utility and if there isn’t, then perhaps [the CCC should be] … relaxing or revising some of these regulations that really no longer make sense.”
In October, commissioners voted to create the committee but the draft motion was not specific about who would be in the new group. At the December meeting, members amended the earlier motion with more specificity about potential membership.
